How can Donegal Creameries still sell milk against cheaper competitors?

NIMAN

Now this isn't a go at Donegal Creameries or anything.

But I was wondering how they can continue to trade in the milk supply market at the price they charge?

Is it customer loyalty?

In most shops and supermarkets I can buy 2 litres of milk from another supplier cheaper than I can buy 1 litre of Donegal Creameries. Surely in a recession this will make a lot of people move to the cheaper brand?

Milk is milk after all.

Flibbles

"My mother bought this milk, as did my mothers mother, and you will too!"

hairyprincess

Compare the nutritional content of your cheap milk and Donegal Creameries

NIMAN

I must do that. First I'll have to buy a DC milk!

I would have thought that most milks were similar in this regard? No? (ignoring Super Milk of course, which is a fair bit more expensive again).

Maldesu

Was in a lecture earlier today (yesterday at this point) and the topic was on the water supply and how in Ireland we add fluoride to it, about .75 ppm or something. So, they though about introducing this in the UK and they went nuts and said 'no way' so it was never done. What was done, was that fluoride was added to milk instead. So if you aren't buying Donegal Creameries and perhaps purchasing another product, you'd have to wonder how much of it comes from the North.

So, consider this:
Flouride in water is about .75 ppm and lets say the same is in your NI sourced milk. Upper range of intake is 1.2 ppm thereabouts. After that you can suffer from fluoride toxicity. So, you might want to check the source on your carton before you buy it. Seems milk isn't just milk anymore.

NIMAN

So is fluoride definitely added to all UK milk?

md23040

hairyprincess wrote: »

Compare the nutritional content of your cheap milk and Donegal Creameries

Can you tell me please the difference between DL creameries and other cheaper competitors in the shops? What's the point in throwing out a rhetorical question without providing an answer in the first place.

Maldesu wrote: »

Was in a lecture earlier today (yesterday at this point) and the topic was on the water supply and how in Ireland we add fluoride to it, about .75 ppm or something. So, they though about introducing this in the UK and they went nuts and said 'no way' so it was never done. What was done, was that fluoride was added to milk instead. So if you aren't buying Donegal Creameries and perhaps purchasing another product, you'd have to wonder how much of it comes from the North.

Can you provide relevant actual facts without scare mongering on your point. Also without getting into the whole fluoride debate of whether fluoride is bad or not, what else is intrinsically different in the cows and pasture process between DLC and other competitors?

In my opinion DLC is way over priced. What you could charge five years ago cant be generally charged now in a wage deflationary environment. This company has not adjusted to the new economic realities of life, but obviously still have strong brand loyalty otherwise price reductions would have been an issue.

Fair play if they can get away with it but would love still to know main differences.

danniemcq

Maldesu wrote: »

Was in a lecture earlier today (yesterday at this point) and the topic was on the water supply and how in Ireland we add fluoride to it, about .75 ppm or something. So, they though about introducing this in the UK and they went nuts and said 'no way' so it was never done. What was done, was that fluoride was added to milk instead. So if you aren't buying Donegal Creameries and perhaps purchasing another product, you'd have to wonder how much of it comes from the North.

So, consider this:
Flouride in water is about .75 ppm and lets say the same is in your NI sourced milk. Upper range of intake is 1.2 ppm thereabouts. After that you can suffer from fluoride toxicity. So, you might want to check the source on your carton before you buy it. Seems milk isn't just milk anymore.

Can't agree with all that, upper range of intake for flouride at 1.2 is the upper range of intake recommened in water by the US, (.7 - 1.2mg/l is what they are at as a guideline atm)

if you were worried about flouride levels then you also want to stay away from tea though as boiling it will concentrate it.

What you really need is to do is capture the steam as you boil and this water will be pure.

also isn't it only school milk that has flouride added?

smashey

This all boils down to brand loyalty. I know a few people who won't buy anything else as they believe it tastes better. One of the reasons they give for that is that the milk is in a cardboard carton as opposed to a plastic bottle. Personally, I don't get that argument at all.

Goodshape

Maybe a certain amount of brand loyalty, and 'shopping local'.

I'm also firmly in the "it tastes better" camp. Honestly haven't even looked past it on the shelf, since I moved back to Donegal, to notice there was any price difference.

martyeds

I buy it because they sponsor the county football team.... So it must be the best.

NIMAN

Goodshape wrote: »

Maybe a certain amount of brand loyalty, and 'shopping local'.

I'm also firmly in the "it tastes better" camp. Honestly haven't even looked past it on the shelf, since I moved back to Donegal, to notice there was any price difference.

But the alternative milk on the shelves in Irish too, and I'm sure locally produced as well.

Think its just brand snobbery at play.

retalivity

I pretty much only drink milk sourced from my own free-range gallaghers bread-fed cows.

Goodshape

NIMAN wrote: »

But the alternative milk on the shelves in Irish too, and I'm sure locally produced as well.

Think its just brand snobbery at play.

I can only argue that my 'loyalty' is a result of preferring the taste. I lived in Dublin for 5 years and didn't have the option of Donegal Creameries. A glass of Avanmore just doesn't taste as nice. Closest I could find regularly was some purposefully-overpriced 'organic' milk (I forget the brand but it's common enough).

Do the people that argue it doesn't make a difference actually drink milk by the glass, or just on the cornflakes and in the coffee/tea?

Maldesu

NIMAN wrote: »

So is fluoride definitely added to all UK milk?

Doing a quick google, seems it is primarily added to school kids milk. Most of the stuff the lecture was on was based on the study of tooth decay in children.

md23040 wrote: »

Can you provide relevant actual facts without scare mongering on your point.

I'm not scaremongering, just repeating some of what I heard in a lecture. For the most part the addition seems to be in milk products supplied to childrens schools rather than widescale commercial use.

danniemcq wrote: »

Can't agree with all that, upper range of intake for flouride at 1.2 is the upper range of intake recommened in water by the US, (.7 - 1.2mg/l is what they are at as a guideline atm)

For water, ppm and mg/L is about the same. Different with other fluids though.

overshoot

had a very quick look when i was in super valu today (2litres)... connaught gold milk (who own them DC dairy anyway) 4c cheaper... super valu own brand was about 60c cheaper then there was the more expensive supermilk and the like. a super valu in almost every town in the county with similar choices and a vague buy local sentiment, makes sales easy

NIMAN

I can buy Dale Farm 2 litres for €1.15 in a local forecourt shop.

The 1 litre Donegal Creameries carton is €1.49.

Shocking difference.

NIMAN

Goodshape wrote: »

I can only argue that my 'loyalty' is a result of preferring the taste. I lived in Dublin for 5 years and didn't have the option of Donegal Creameries. A glass of Avanmore just doesn't taste as nice. Closest I could find regularly was some purposefully-overpriced 'organic' milk (I forget the brand but it's common enough).

Do the people that argue it doesn't make a difference actually drink milk by the glass, or just on the cornflakes and in the coffee/tea?

I drink a lot of milk by the glass with dinners, as well as the usual in tea/cereals etc.

To be honest, I never really notice a difference in brands. Having said that, I never really went out of my way to think "lets see how this tastes" as I drink a glass of milk. To me the difference must be very slight, as I have never ever found myself thinking "I don't like the taste of that milk".

I have also drunk DC milk many times as well, as to be honest again it never made me think it was any different.

Cee-Jay-Cee

I buy DC milk purely because it tastes better than other milk. The price doesn't make any difference. I couldn't tell you the price of it anyway.

2moreMinutes

hairyprincess wrote: »

Compare the nutritional content of your cheap milk and Donegal Creameries

The 1 litre carton in Lidl is produced/sourced/made(milked??) by Donegal Creameries.

As someone else said, its all about brand loyalty regardless of the price. To me, its all from a cow so it cant be all that different.

NIMAN

CJC999 wrote: »

I buy DC milk purely because it tastes better than other milk. The price doesn't make any difference. I couldn't tell you the price of it anyway.

Its a lot more expensive;)

homer simpson

The main thing that would stand out for me is the taste, I find a taste of plastic from the cheaper brand's of milk. It could very well be that it has been because I was raised on DC milk but I done a wee test because I always wanted to buy DC milk and my OH the cheaper branded version...

I put some DC milk in a freshly empty cheaper brand plastic carton (after being well washed out), left for about 24 hours and then poured 2 glasses of milk. 1 from the DC milk left in the plastic carton, the other from the original DC milk carton and the one in the cheaper plastic packaging tasted awful and the original was fine. Both of us agreed too :eek: We buy DC milk only now.

Another thing, people are saying the milk all comes cows which is very true so why then does more often than not the cheaper branded milk come with a much longer shelf life / use by date than DC's milk

implausible

I try to buy locally and Irish as much as I can, but when the alternative is half the price and you go through nearly 2 litres a day, principles are hard to keep up. Most of the local shops have 2 litres of milk from the North for €1. It tastes a bit more watery to me, but it's hard to argue with the saving.

Two local farmers are now supplying a creamery in the North instead of DC and I can only presume that it's because they're getting a better price for it.

Sponsoring the team must be very expensive!:eek:

NIMAN

implausible wrote: »

I try to buy locally and Irish as much as I can, but when the alternative is half the price and you go through nearly 2 litres a day, principles are hard to keep up. Most of the local shops have 2 litres of milk from the North for €1. It tastes a bit more watery to me, but it's hard to argue with the saving.

Two local farmers are now supplying a creamery in the North instead of DC and I can only presume that it's because they're getting a better price for it.

Sponsoring the team must be very expensive!:eek:

Sure you haven't bought skimmed;)

NIMAN

I think I will do a taste test this weekend to see if there is a difference.

implausible

NIMAN wrote: »

Sure you haven't bought skimmed;)

There'd be war if that stuff crossed the threshold :eek:

NIMAN

Agree, its just white water.

yourpics

NIMAN wrote: »

I can buy Dale Farm 2 litres for €1.15 in a local forecourt shop.

The 1 litre Donegal Creameries carton is €1.49.

Shocking difference.

1 litre of Donegal Creameries milk is €1.15 or €1.16
Where are you buying it for €1.49?

It tastes much better from the cardboard carton than the plastic carton.
Alot of Donegal Creameries milk is supplied by farms in NI particularly around Omagh

NIMAN

I must double check the litre price again, maybe I didn't recall it properly.

Even if it is 1.15, you can get twice the amount of milk for the same money from Dale Farm.

And if its true that DC get a lot of their milk from NI, then people buying it to keep Donegal jobs is a bit of a myth then?

Also, re: the taste, is the milk itself better tasting or is it the fact that its packaged differently? If you put the other milks into a carton, would they be as good as the DC milk?

yourpics

NIMAN wrote: »

I must double check the litre price again, maybe I didn't recall it properly.

Even if it is 1.15, you can get twice the amount of milk for the same money from Dale Farm.

And if its true that DC get a lot of their milk from NI, then people buying it to keep Donegal jobs is a bit of a myth then?

Also, re: the taste, is the milk itself better tasting or is it the fact that its packaged differently? If you put the other milks into a carton, would they be as good as the DC milk?

Probably just the packaging.

I don't know what percentage of their supply comes from NI farms, but bear in mind the transport, processing and distribution takes place/is sourced from/in Donegal

implausible

yourpics wrote: »

I don't know what percentage of their supply comes from NI farms, but bear in mind the transport, processing and distribution takes place/is sourced from/in Donegal

And vice-versa - Donegal farmers are supplying Northern creameries.

As for the differences in packaging - we go through far too much of it to be faffing about with cartons!